England opener Zak Crawley’s summer got off to a horrible start: bowled through the gate aiming a booming drive at a journeyman Australian left-arm seamer for one.
Unlike some of his England team-mates, Crawley has gone straight into county action at the start of the new Division Two season for Kent, who were invited to bat first by Northamptonshire at Wantage Road.
Crawley failed to make it past the third over, as he was castled by a handsome in-swinger from Liam Guthrie, a West Australian who plays for Queensland but has joined Darren Lehmann’s Northants on a three-year deal as a local player, as he holds a British passport.
When Guthrie was finished with Crawley, just one stump was left standing.
2.4 | How about that 😍
— Northamptonshire CCC (@NorthantsCCC) April 4, 2025
Guthrie sends stumps flying and removes Crawley. 💪
Kent 3/1.
Watch live 👉 https://t.co/CU8uwteMydpic.twitter.com/zUvh4G3oaX
Guthrie, who came into the match with 50 first-class wickets at 37.8 but also picked up Kent captain Daniel Bell-Drummond, was not the first unheralded left-armer to dismiss Crawley this week. As Kent racked up 599 for seven declared in a warm-up fixture against Loughborough University, he was trapped lbw shouldering arms by Will Rogers for a two-ball duck.
A strong run of early season form in the Championship would be welcome for Crawley at the start of a massive year for England’s Test team in which they play India at home and Australia away in five-match series.
In England’s last series against those two teams in 2023-24, Crawley was Ben Stokes’s team’s most consistent batsman, quietening the noise about his place in the side after a patchy start to his Test career. That noise has begun to rise again, however, after a poor run of form in late 2024 after returning from a broken hand.
Against New Zealand in December, Crawley was dismissed by Matt Henry in all six innings, making just 52 runs at an average under nine. Against Henry, poor Crawley scored just 10 runs in 33 balls.
There was further bad news for England, with the Nottinghamshire fast bowler Olly Stone undergoing surgery on a knee injury that looks likely to keep him out for almost the entire Test summer. England are already missing Mark Wood for their series against India, while his Durham team-mate Brydon Carse is recovering from a toe injury.
The selectors would have been encouraged, though, by the sight of Sonny Baker, the Hampshire seamer on Championship debut, dismissing Yorkshire captain Jonny Bairstow.
